OLD BRIDGE — Drag racing veteran Neal Parker of Millville was on his way to a career best run. His 2005 Monte Carlo accelerated down the quarter mile track, crossing the finish line at Raceway Park in Old Bridge in less than 6 seconds at nearly 250 mph.

But then things went terribly wrong.

The race car’s parachute, used to slow the vehicle, failed to deploy, sending the vehicle and driver hurtling off the end of the track, shooting past a safety runoff area, through a gravel trap, breaching several safety nets and finally crashing into water-filled barrels, said Graham Light, National Hot Rod Association’s vice president of race operations.

The 58-year-old Top Alcohol Funny Car driver was killed in the crash. State Police said Parker suffered head injuries.

The crash happened at the end of a qualifying run for the SuperNationals, one of the premier events organized by National Hot Rod Association — essentially the NASCAR of drag racing.

"It’s a high-speed, risky form of auto racing," Light said. "We all dread when these days happen. It’s tough to deal with for the whole racing community."

This is the second time in three years a drag racer was killed at the Middlesex County track when a car didn’t stop and ran off the raceway.

Scott Kalitta, 46, died in 2008 when his car exploded at about half-track, didn’t slow and was hurled — at 300 mph — over a catch fence and into an unmanned TV-camera pole. After his death Raceway Park made extensive improvements to the top end of the racetrack. Among those upgrades were the nets at the end of the sand trap.

In the 2009, Alexis DeJoria, a Top Alcohol Funny Car driver from Florida, lost the brakes on her car and ran into the catch-net, safe from injury.

NHRANeal Parker

Today, DeJoria was in staging lanes, in the second pair of cars behind Parker, when the accident happened. She said at first she knew that "somebody went in the sand" but had no idea of "the gravity of the situation, only that the clean-up would take a bit of time.

"They weren’t saying anything to anyone for awhile," she said. "I just wanted to know if he was OK. I just wanted to hear that, you know? You come back here (to the pits) and you just pray that everything will go smoothly. This is just unreal."

Tom Carter, a dentist from Texas, was lined up directly behind Parker.

"I started praying the minute I saw what happened. I was in the next pair of cars to run in the same lane. All I saw was a big dust plume. As soon as I saw the dust (flying), I started praying."

Carter had raced with Parker in the IHRA, "He was one of the best drivers I’ve known. His natural abilities to drive. He was fearless, " he said. "I’m going to miss him a lot."

New Jersey State Police towed Parker’s race car from the raceway and said they are investigating the cause of the crash.

Thousands of spectators sat for about four hours before being told the Cumberland County man had died.

Pat Kearns, a Long Island resident, said she saw Parker’s car fly past the straight away and disappear off the end of the track.